Records around the Nurburgring are a hotly contested feat amongst car manufacturers none more fiercely competitive than the FWD Nurburgring ring record. Renault reckons it can handily beat Honda’s 7:43.8 record achieved by their Civic Type R with Renault’s all new Megane RS Trophy edition that was just announced earlier this week. Not only did Renault unveil a new turbocharged 1.8L power plant underneath the hood, they’ve got a trick up their sleeve in the form of 4Control a.k.a. 4 wheel steering.
Most Megane’s sold will be equipped with Renault’s all new 1.8L Renault-Nissan collab engine also found in the Alpine A110 that pumps out 276 HP and 288 lb-ft. But there will also be a Trophy version of that same car with even more power at 296 HP and 295 lb-ft. That trophy version will be the one that will attack the Nurburgring with a run at the record in late 2018.
The aforementioned ace up Renault’s sleeve will be their 4Control technology which allows the rear wheels to turn up to 2.7 degrees. Supposedly, that’s all this hot hatch needs to improve the Renault Megane RS’s turning Radius at low speeds while delivering greater agility and improved stability at high speeds. Renault thinks the trickledown effect of better handling benefits more than just turning.
““What became clear was that we had two choices: to make a car without it and to make incremental improvements in every area over what had gone before, or to make the car with it and to make a step change in terms of improvements. The benefits go across every area of the car’s dynamics – we have been able to rework the dampers, diffs, steering and more.”
F1 ace Nico Hulkenberg already got a crack at the normal version of the Renault Megane RS and according to Nico, “the gearbox is very well especially the automatic one, very responsive and very direct. It’s a lot stiffer, it’s a lot like a racing car. If you’re going to track days, it’s a lot more performance. The 4Control, you feel it working pretty well on long sweeping corners.”
Renault is taking this Nurburgring attack seriously as they’ve already been spied on the ‘Ring testing with their tires indicating they were running at full attack.
That’s the nature of records, they’re meant to be broken. If part of the reason Honda took back the Nurburgring record was to sell a few more Honda Civic Type R’s, it’s done the trick as those have been flying off the lots. Honda was adamant saying the last time their record was stolen from them that they’d steal it right back. We wonder when Renault announces they’ve beat Honda if Honda will respond in kind. If so, that means a hotter Civic Type R may be on the way!
